Massachusetts highest court acquits Muslim Black Man
BOSTON, Massachusetts – The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court acquitted a Muslim Black man of sex trafficking charges.
The state’s highest court overturned the lower court’s ruling that had indicted Anthony Dew in 2015. He had been convicted of 19 charges, including five counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation and one count of rape.
Dew had in fact become the victim of the anti-Muslim bias of court-appointed attorney Richard Doyle.
Although he was assigned to defend Dew, he saw to it that he was convicted in the lower court.
The highest court also took note of the bias of the attorney towards the accused.
The case was taken up by the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which filed a brief in the Supreme Judicial Court on his behalf.
“Attorney Richard Doyle had a conflict of interest that deprived the defendant of his right to effective assistance of counsel, a right upon which our entire system of criminal justice depends,” the court wrote in its unanimous decision.
Doyle had urged Dew to accept a plea bargain in the case, and in 2016 he pleaded guilty to all charges except rape.
He was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
“Indigent and facing multiple felony charges, the defendant was appointed counsel who openly posted, on his social media account, his vitriolic hatred of and bigotry against persons of the Muslim faith; his unabashed anti-Muslim rants were matched only by his equal scorn for and racism against Black persons,” the court wrote.
Dew had no idea until his conviction that his lawyer was a known racist and has deceived him.
On two occasions, he had refused to meet Dew when he was wearing the Muslim prayer cap. In 2021, he came to know that he has been deceived and moved to court seeking a new trial and withdrawal of guilty pleas.
However, the lower court denied his motion.
Then CAIR appealed to the Supreme Court, which overturned the trafficking conviction involving sexual abuse. He was released from prison on parole Thursday.
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